German Hotel Booking Giant HRS Tilts Further Toward Corporate Travel
Photo Credit: HRS chief executive Tobias Ragge is overseeing some tweaks to its three main lines of business, including consumer bookings, hotel tech services, and corporate hotel booking. HRS
Skift Take
We applaud Germany’s largest travel tech company for trying to help business travelers check in and check out of hotels more quickly by investing in app-connected sensors at hundreds of hotels.
This summer is a pivotal time for HRS, Germany's largest home-grown online travel agency and corporate hotel booking specialist.
In July, the new HRS headquarters, next to Cologne's main train station, is slated to be finished. The new building will enable the 1,500-employee company to increase its Cologne staff.
The fresh hiring will reflect a rebalanced set of priorities.
In the German-speaking world, HRS is best known as a consumer reservations brand — with one out of every three online hotel bookings in Germany made through its portals. But the online travel agency division is only a small part of the privately held company's global operation.
It's also a division that is under pressure, according to industry experts. The consumer business' percentage contribution to company revenue is believed to shrinking each year as the brand faces a fierce marketing battle against Amsterdam-based Booking.com and U.S.-headquartered Expedia.
Reacting to rate parity bans
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